PSEG to invest $247M in 45 MW of solar

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Dive Brief:

Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), the owner of New Jersey's largest utility Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G), plans to spend $247 developing 45 megawatts of solar capacity by 2016, according to Bloomberg.

PSE&G already operates 80 megawatts of solar power and hopes to add 125 megawatts through its "Solar 4 All" program approved by regulators in 2009.

Around 42 megawatts of new capacity will be installed at landfills or unused commercial and industrial properties. The remaining three megawatts will be linked to new technologies such as grid-scale energy storage. Construction of one 10-megawatt project at Parklands Landfill in Bordentown, New Jersey, began last week.

Dive Insight

2014 has been a busy year for PSEG.

Last month, the utility petitioned the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to invest $110 million in energy efficiency programs. In March, it announced plans to spend $6.8 billion to upgrade transmission and distribution. And in May, New Jersey regulators approved a $1 billion PSE&G investment to boost resiliency on the state's electric grid after Hurricane Sandy.

PSEG is also revamping the utility formerly known as the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), which it began managing in January and renamed PSE&G-Long Island.

The investments, especially the Sandy upgrades, seem to be paying off for PSE&G. In July, the utility announced its net income increased 25% in Q2 2014, largely because New Jersey regulators approved a $4 rate increase for the average customer to finance grid upgrades.